The research presented
in these articles is part of a long-term project, undertaken by Chad Broughton,
assistant professor of sociology at Knox College, which seeks to document
the social and economic impact of the Maytag plant relocation in Galesburg,
Illinois and Reynosa, Mexico. These articles comprised a four-part series
in the Galesburg Register-Mail that explores life in Reynosa, a city that
has grown and industrialized rapidly as foreign corporations like Maytag
have located manufacturing facilities there. Josh Walsman, of Chicago,
and Robin Ragan, assistant professor of Spanish at Knox College, are collaborators
on the project.

REYNOSA, MEXICO: CITY OF PROMISE AND POVERTY

By
Chad Broughton

Thirteen years ago
Atanasio Martínez, then 25 years old, stepped onto a bus, leaving
his family and home in the state of Veracruz, to come north to Reynosa.

Out of work, Martínez
recalls thinking on the day-long bus trip to the border, What will
I do? What will happen to me? Now 38, Martínez is married
with four children, ages 12 to 17, and owns a 600 sq. ft. home. After
thirteen years working on a wheel chair assembly line, Martínez
makes $290 per month.

It is difficult,
Martínez said. It would be stupid to say it isnt, right?
One has to adapt. To make ends meet, both he and his wife must work,
he said.

When he reflects on
his move, Martínez has mixed feelings. Neither was I hurt
by it or benefited. The work here is a little more stable, but to be satisfied,
really OK, [I would say] no.

Martínez is
one of 70,000 workers employed in over 150 assembly factories in Reynosa,
known there as maquiladoras or maquilas. Maytag,
which already operates two subassembly factories in Reynosa, plans to
open side-by-side refrigerator production there soon.

As factories have
located in Reynosa, the city has grown rapidly. According to government
statistics, Reynosas population doubled in size from 1980 to 2000
along with the border industrial boom. While government statistics peg
the population at 461,795 in 2002, municipal officialsusing other
government databasesestimate the actual population to be around
1.2 million.

Because of the arrival
of companies like Maytag, Reynosalike Tijuana, Cuidad Juarez and
other borders citieshas exploded in the last several decades from
a modest town based largely on agriculture and petroleum into a global
production center. While rapid economic growth has increased possibilities
and prospects for many, Reynosa finds itself beset with major social and
infrastructure problems and persistent poverty.

It is clear that the
Maytag departure will be devastating to Galesburg and its residents, especially
those who work at the plant. But will Maytags arrivaland the
industrialization of Reynosa more generallybenefit the people there?

A City of Contrasts

The luxuries of modern
American consumer culture and dire poverty exist alongside each other
in stark contrast in Reynosa. Likewise, ultramodern, clean and efficient
factories are located within sight of grim shantytowns, containing homes
constructed ingeniously out of cinder blocks, wood from discarded factory
pallets and scrap, corrugated tin.

Like Galesburg, Reynosa
has Burger King, Pizza Hut, and even an Applebees. Around the main
plaza downtown, there is a large Nike Factory Store, a Subway restaurant,
an Internet café, and a movie theater showing first-run American
movies. Both spotless, new American SUVs and rundown, small pick-ups,
sometimes carrying ten men in the bed, circle the hectic main plaza. Outside
of the central downtown area, there are large strip malls with Blockbuster
Video stores, several American hotel chains, and large combined supermarkets
and retail stores. The most popular is Sorianas, which sells everything
from stereo systems and imported German beer to soccer balls and corn
and flour tortillas. Cell phones are common and many middle-class residents
have Internet access in their homes.

Many on the border
feel they have to fight popular stereotypes that depict the border as
backward and underdeveloped. Mike Allen, president and CEO of the McAllen
Economic Development Corporation, which recruits companies to McAllen,
Texas and Reynosa, said, were not campesinos, we dont
wear sombreros, and we dont have horses tied outside the front.

A lot of folks
have that idea, Allen continued. They think of the border
and all they think [is]: theres no water, colonias [poor neighborhoods],
nothing going on here. And yet theres a lot going on here. And the
quality of life has improved tremendously.

Herber Ramírez,
secretary of economic development and employment in Reynosa, bragged about
the quality of the factories. Theyre brand new buildings,
he said, fully air conditioned, nice facilities, nice cafeteria,
and they sometimes provide better benefits than they do in the States.
Surprise!

While the size, activity
and modernity of the city may be surprising to someone who hasnt
been there, so might the extent of the poverty and lack of basic services
for many of its residents.

Reynosa has been simply
growing out of control, as poor, jobless migrants from southern states
like Veracruz come seeking work at the borderor across it. When
one city official said Reynosa grows at a rate of a block per week,
another corrected him: per day, he said.

The municipal government,
which collects no taxes from the factories, cannot come close to meeting
the water, electrical, sewage, medical, and transportation needs of its
growing citizenry, especially in the colonias sprouting up on the outskirts
of the city, around Reynosas nine industrial parks.

In these improvised
communities, dogs, mules and chickens roam the landscape and children
play amongst the rubble and near pools of water collected in rutted dirt
roads. Sometimes living in these conditions is transitory as workers find
their feet in the new area and apply for federal housing assistance; other
times it is not.

Making Ends Meet

While modern consumer
goods and services are widely available in Reynosa, most residents have
limited access to them. Less expensive used clothing and flea markets,
sidewalk and bicycle vendors, and makeshift convenience shops are spread
thickly across the city to provide lower price options. For someone taking
home the average line workers wage of about 70 pesos (about $6.50)
per day, these informal markets are more affordable.

The cost of living
in Reynosa is only slightly lower than in urban areas in the United States,
making it difficult for a line worker to support his or her family (though
many line workers are young and single).

One single mother,
Rosa Nuñez, said, They pay me so little and we cant
make it. One parent should be able to earn enough for his kids, education
and fun. That isnt the way it is. What one parent earns isnt
even enough for your basic monthly food.

Like the consumer
options available, the range of sophisticated gadgetry that is produced
in Reynosas maquiladoras is remarkable. In addition to Maytag, a
number of household names operate in Reynosa including Nokia, Black &
Decker, Panasonic, Emerson, Kohler, LG, Bissell, GE and Whirlpool, making
a wide range of products, from basic yard equipment to plasma televisions
and global positioning systems for upscale cars.

In tandem with sophisticated
production processes, the local workforce is accumulating technical and
managerial skills in these high-tech factories and in the technical and
other types of schools that are popping up. Boosters of the area maintain
that there are ample opportunities for advancement, better wages and a
better life for the average worker because of the cutting-edge technology
of the Reynosa workplace.

In his thirteen years
working in the maquilas, however, Martínez says that his wages
have only improved at the rate of inflation, and offered minimal opportunities
for advancement.

Though there is much
uncertainty about the future of Reynosa, Martínez has dreams for
his son, who, now in the 11th grade, has already exceeded his educational
level and hopes to become an engineer. It gives me great satisfaction
to give him [the opportunity] to study, Martínez said. I
want for [my children] to have what I couldnt.

Sidebar: U.S. FACTORIES
MOVE TO THE BORDER

Fifty years ago Galesburg
and Reynosa were both small cities of between 30,000 and 35,000. While
Galesburgs population has remained comparatively steady, Reynosas
has swelled to over a million as southern Mexicans have migrated to the
rapidly industrializing city.

In 1965, the Mexican
government established the Border Industrialization Program in an attempt
to improve the depressed economies in the northern states. This program
created maquiladoras, assembly plants that imported components and raw
goods from the United States, finished them, and then shipped them back
across the border. New communications technology and other advances made
it possible for U.S. companies to operate assembly plants distant from
corporate headquarters.

Maquiladoras in Reynosa
employed only about 1,200 workers in 1975. In 1974, Zenith was the first
big U.S. corporation with a household name to move to Reynosa, eventually
employing several thousand in Reynosa and, by the early 1990s, nearly
20,000 in several cities along the border.

After the peso was
devalued in 1983, it became cheaper for U.S. companies to relocate in
Mexico and the maquila boom accelerated. When Mexico entered GATT, the
General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (a free trade agreement association
that later transformed into the WTO, the World Trade Organization), the
border region became more attractive for American corporations.

While maquila employment
in Reynosa increased by a factor of five (from 5,450 to 24,801 workers)
during the 1980s, Zenith alone moved 4,165 jobs out of Illinois to Reynosa
and Matamoros, another border city, during that same decade, according
to a report from the University of Illinois at Chicago.

On January 1, 1994,
with the implementation NAFTA, the North American Free Trade Agreement,
the incentives for U.S. manufacturers to invest in Mexico increased and
the bargaining power of organized labor in the U.S was further undermined.

Maytag first threatened
to leave Galesburg in 1994, forcing state, city and union concessions.
While NAFTA is an easy target for blame, the agreement is just one step
in a decades-long process of expanding free trade between the United States
and Mexico. U.S. corporations like Maytag would likely have moved to border
cities like Reynosa even without NAFTA.

Though still a bustling
city, Reynosa faces the same challenges that Galesburg has faced in the
last several decades: lower-wage competitors.

Stephen Spivey, former
business editor of the McAllen Monitor, noted, The outlook for the
maquiladora industry isnt that good. Even though companies like
Maytag are going down there, it seems like Mexico is losing that low-cost
advantage. Theyre all going to China now. As cheap as Mexico is,
China is much cheaper still. I think theres a lot of concern that
the industry is in real trouble.

While an entry-level
wage in Reynosa is typically $6.50 per day, excluding benefits, that same
job could be done in China for about $2 per day. Indeed, Mexico has lost
literally hundreds of thousands of assembly jobs since maquila employment
peaked in October 2000mainly because of slackening consumer demand
in the U.S. and Chinese competition.

Given the whims and
demands of global capitalism, the future of Reynosa is as difficult to
predict as that of Galesburg.

One prediction seems
reasonable, however: companies that produce bulky items, like refrigerators,
will continue to seek out low-wage labor and will want to avoid trans-Pacific
shipping costs from China to the United States. As a result, companies
like Maytag may have a presence in Mexico for some timeand are likely
to relocate more of their U.S. assembly plants to places like Reynosa
in the near future.

September 27, 2003The Register-Mail

BRINGING
FACTORIES TO REYNOSA

By Chad Broughton

Several decades ago,
Mike Allen moved out of the rectory to live in a humble trailer in order
to be closer to the impoverished members of his parish in McAllen, Texas.
Today, in his spacious and elegant office at the McAllen Economic Development
Corporation (MEDC), he still has a weathered picture of himself with several
Mexican-American parishioners in front of the trailer.

This is where
I lived. Pointing to the undeveloped landscape of the picture, he
adds, This is McAllen, Texas!

Present-day McAllen
is much different. It is now a sprawling and bustling metropolitan areaone
of the fastest growing in the United Stateswith about 600,000 people
in the county. As president and CEO of MEDC, Allen is the man most responsible
for McAllensand Reynosasrapid growth.

Having left the priesthood,
Allen shifted to promoting economic growth in the region. In 1988, Allen
met with the mayor of Reynosa, who arrived to the meeting in a Chevrolet
Suburban with an AK-47 in the back.

We said, well
do the recruiting of the companies, well put em in there;
you take care of the infrastructure. Regarding the assault rifle,
Allen quipped, What do I do with this?

With a handshake,
Allen and the mayor agreed that MEDC would recruit factories to Mexico.
Since then, the economies of Reynosa and McAllen have boomed together
and have become ever more interdependent, with assembly work on the Mexican
side and suppliers and distributors locating on the Texas side to support
the assembly operations (called maquiladoras or maquilas in Mexico).

Economic growth in
McAllen has generated a great deal of wealth, but some question how much
it has done to alleviate the persistent poverty of the area. Stephen Spivey,
former business editor of the McAllen Monitor, said, Its good,
but its not channeled in a way that really lifts people up.

Like the Mexican side
of the border, southern Texas has scores of poor, unincorporated communities
that lack basic utilities and where families face austere living conditions.
In sharp contrast to these impoverished colonias are the palm
tree-lined, upscale homes of Sharyland Plantation, a new 6,000-acre development
in McAllen.

The impact of the
boom is even more apparent on the Mexican side of the border. From just
a handful of factories in the 70s and 80s, Reynosa now has some 150 factories
that employ approximately 70,000 workers. In addition to such names as
GE, Black & Decker, Nokia and Whirlpool, Maytag is currently operating
two sub-assembly plants in Reynosa, and next year, after Galesburg Refrigeration
Products closes, production of side-by-side refrigerators will begin there
as well.

Most of the maquilas
assemble electrical or electronic products. Black and Decker produces
yard equipment that one might find at Lowes or Kmart in Galesburg.
Workers at LG Electronicswhich, when it was Zenith, employed thousands
in Illinoisassemble tube and plasma TVs. Palm pilots, cell phones,
computer memory chips, digital bar code scanners, heart catheterization
kits and Brunswick boats are also made in Reynosa. Automobile global positioning
systems, CD and cassette mechanisms, and even seat belts are produced
there as well.

Inside the Maquilas

Having never seen
the inside of a Mexican factory, one might imagine a lowly lit, dirty,
hot and fast-paced assembly line where workers are forced to work long
hours. While the pay is very low and work is often extraordinarily tedious,
most maquilas are new, air-conditioned, and sparkling clean. Most workers
in the maquilas work standard eight-hour days.

In one of the LG Electronics
factories, workers wear neat, color-coded aprons, which indicate their
job rank. As you enter the shop floor, hanging on the wall are elaborate
and colorful charts that keep tabs on the soccer and volleyball tournaments
that the factory sponsors for its workers. On other walls hang charts,
graphs and statistics relating to LGs quest to become the
top manufacturer of digital TVs in the Western Hemisphere.

Further inside the
factory, there are long lines of 30 to 45 workersmostly young womenpunching
in tiny electronic pieces that will eventually make up a circuit board
for LGs tube televisions. For eight hours, a worker will perform
the same task time and time again, contributing her piece to the 6,500
televisions produced each day at the plant.

Though the scale,
tidiness and quality control of the operation are impressive at LG, the
pay is not. Gloria D. Altamirano, former human resources manager and now
part-time consultant at LG, said, Starting pay is 70 pesos ($6.50)
per day during the three-month probationary period. After that,
she said, workers are either let go or given a permanent contract, including
a pay increase of 25% and benefits.

Rosa Nuñez,
a maquila worker and labor organizer, disputes the companys claims.
Maquiladoras do not follow Mexican labor law or their own stated practices,
she said. In reality workers never get past three months in the
plants. After three months, they call you into labor relations and tell
you, Your contract is up. Come back in 15 days and well rehire
you. You lose all your benefits. Its a trick.

Nuñez also
said working conditions in the maquila are often hazardous and that unions
do little to advocate for workers. Though Mexican labor law has many regulations
that are meant to protect workers, these laws are violated frequently
and businesses are not held accountable. Maytag, she said, is no exception.

Attempts to contact
Maytag officials in Reynosa to view the facility were unsuccessful.

Facing Criticism
in Reynosa

Mike Allen and other
promoters and members of the maquiladora industry have been denounced
by people in factory-reliant cities like Galesburg for recruiting jobs
from the Midwest. Allen also faces criticism in Reynosa for the social
ills that have accompanied the arrival of the factories.

The question opponents
often ask is, Who benefits?

Arturo Solis, the
president of a Reynosa human rights organization, claims that growth has
benefited U.S. corporations, big land-owners and developers, the Mexican
federal government, and the Reynosa middle class. The poor, the municipal
infrastructure and the natural environment have shouldered the costs,
he said.

Solis points to one
man in particular: The maquilas main man. The man who causes

all of Reynosas
problems: Mike Allen.

Armando Zertuche,
the former secretary of economic development and employment in Reynosa,
said economic growth in the region is controlled by the business eliteand
largely to their benefit.

A maquila comes
to Reynosa to establish itself and they decide who, when, why, with what
union and so on. Its a marvelous amount of power and control they
have. They pay no local taxes and threaten to leave for China if
workers demand higher wages or better conditions, he added.

Because of the looming
threat of China, the federal and local governments, and unions conspire
to keep wages low and regulations on corporations to a minimum, several
critics said.

On this point, Allen
and his critics share a similar political and economic perspective, if
not a similar moral one.

In defense of the
maquiladora industry, Allen said, Everything boils down to economics.
And you cant fault that. You have to look at everything from the
standpoint of what can I do to help a company reduce their cost or minimize
their cost. The minute they can make more money somewhere else, theyll
move. Theyre not bad people. Theyre not evil organizations.
Its just bottom-line economics.

Sidebar: RECRUITING
MAYTAG TO REYNOSA

Mike Allen is proud
of what the McAllen Economic Development Corporation (MEDC) has accomplished
for McAllen and Reynosa.

The only way
that our community is going to better itself is if we get better quality
jobs and we begin to go after companies like Maytag or like Delco and
get them to locate here, he said.

Allen has been criticized
in Northeastern and Midwestern cities devastated by factory closuresincluding
Galesburgfor targeting high-wage, blue collar work in their communities.
A charismatic and proud south Texan, Allen is used to the criticism and
is not shy about dishing it back.

In Chicago on a trip
to recruit companies, Allen and his partner, Keith Partridge, were picketed.

They said that
were taking jobs from Illinois, Allen said. Yeah, we
were! There was no question that we were trying to bring them down here
to McAllen, Texas. But thats free enterprise. What were trying
to do here is raise the standard of living, to raise the wage level of
people who live here.

Defending his recruitment
efforts, Allen argues that jobs in the Midwest will leave regardless;
his aim is to persuade U.S., Asian and Europe corporations to locate in
Reynosa, which will provide opportunities for the unemployed in Reynosa
and McAllen alike.

Allen would offer
no details about MEDCs efforts to recruit Maytag from Galesburg
to Reynosa, though it typically provides financial incentives that are
in part provided by the city.

In April, a Copley
New Service article quoted Allen as saying that Maytag has several plants
planned for their 62-acre campus in Reynosa. By the time they're
finished, Allen said, we're talking about 3,000, 4,000, maybe
even 5,000 workers. His comments suggested that more U.S. Maytag
factories would relocate in Reynosa in the near future.

When asked about the
situation in Galesburg, Allen was resentful of the criticism that Maytag
and his organization have received and the moaning and groaning
about Maytags departureespecially considering the fact, he
said, that McAllen and Reynosa has higher unemployment and poverty than
Galesburg.

There was no
outcry in Galesburg, Illinois, about how the people in our community were
being treated, he said. Allen is passionate about his work and his
community and makes no apologies about recruiting American companies to
Mexico. Tell Galesburg and anybody else in Illinois, were
coming back!

September 28, 2003The Register-Mail

WORKING AND LIVING
IN REYNOSA

By Chad Broughton

Rosa Nuñez
is fed up. A worker in a Reynosa factory, or maquiladora, for eight years
and a struggling single mother, Nuñez has been attempting to organize
workers to improve working conditions and to help workers learn their
rights.

Ever since my
daughter was born, Ive told myself that I wanted better living conditions
for her, so we have to continue to struggle, Nuñez said.
So, here, [with other] women, weve taken measures to organize
and educate ourselves because we all have kids, and we dont want
our kids to work in the maquilas. It is really all about consciousness-raising.

Like other critics
of the maquiladora industry, Nuñez maintains that corporations
mistreat workers by exposing them to dangerous substances and repetitive
stress injuries, firing them if they speak out, and by paying them low
wages, which forces them to live in desperate living conditions.

She says workers,
the majority of whom are women, are afraid to speak out on unsafe working
conditions and labor violations.

[The corporations]
violate contracts, they violate everything, she said. And
workers dont feel they have the capability to confront such a powerful
entity.

Supporters of the
maquiladora industry claim such accusations are untrue.

Herber Ramírez,
secretary of economic development and employment in Reynosa said, U.S.
companies come into Mexico and theyre going to be watched [very
closely] by the Mexican government. They wont let you get away with
anything.

Supporters also point
out that the wages paid at maquiladoras are higher than elsewhere and
offer desperately needed work opportunities in areas of chronic unemployment.

Mike Allen, president
and CEO of the McAllen Economic Development Corporation, which recruits
companies to Mexico, said, What we try to do is provide jobs for
our community. In the process weve created 60,000 jobs in Mexico.
Weve never gone after cheap labor, weve gone after the higher
tech type companies.

Advocates of the maquila
industry also say that foreign factories have improved the standard of
living remarkably in the last fifteen years. They contend that it is unfair
to blame the maquiladora industry for Mexican poverty, which it did not
create.

The Journey to
the Border

In the last twenty
years, border cities have swelled as the poor from Mexicos interior
have migrated north looking for work at the border or in the U.S. Like
African Americans migrating to Chicago and other northern cities a century
ago, southern Mexicans have been migrating in hopes of a better life in
the industrial north.

The results for these
migrants are varied.

Even critics concede
that there are more wage opportunities at the border than in rural areas
of the southern states in Mexico, where economic prospects for the poor
are bleak.

Free trade agreements
between the U.S. and Mexico, including NAFTA, have made farming less profitable
for Mexican farmers. With lower tariffs on American grains, millions of
unsubsidized small and medium-sized farms in Mexico are unable to compete
with federally supported U.S. agribusiness.

As farming families
in rural Mexico go bankrupt in record numbers, younger members of these
families seek opportunities in the north.

Carlos Peña,
a journalist with ten years experience covering the maquiladora industry,
sees the benefits of economic growth, but says it needs to be channeled
to workers, who find difficult living conditions when they arrive in Reynosa
from the rural interior.

Yes, its
true. The maquilas provide jobs and development as agricultural development
has failed, said Peña. But [the migrants] come and
live in shacks without water, electricity, doctors, nothing. Its
like were going back in time, as if it were slavery again,
he said.

Poor neighborhoods,
called colonias, have sprung up around the citys nine
industrial parks as migrants arrive, often to live with a relative. The
municipal government cannot keep pace with the basic needs of these growing
communities.

Secretary Ramírez
said, the city doesnt have the monies to equip all the new
colonias with the infrastructure, electrification, water, sewer systems;
thats something we have to live with and make ends meet.

Sometimes the
mayor has to weigh it and see where the money is going to be spent,
Ramírez continued. Thats why you find a lot of potholes
in the city, because hes spending money bringing in water and electricity
to colonias that just started up.

While some colonias
on the outskirts of the city have cinder block homes, access to water
and passable roads, other have rutted mud roads, standing pools of water
during the rainy season, outdoor toilets, limited access to electricity
and water, and infrequent trash collection. Critics point to the many
physical and mental health problems that such living conditions can cause.

Municipal officials
and boosters claim that these conditions are transitory and that as workers
find stable work, they eventually move into better housing. After six
months, workers can access credit to buy a 600 sq. ft. house though a
federal program know as INFONAVIT.

Jorge Cantú,
a developer, estimates that 4,000 to 5,000 INFONAVIT homes are built each
year in Reynosa.

Ed Kruegar, a social
activist in the area, estimates, however, that only 15% to 25% of maquila
workers live in INFONAVIT homes. He says that the remaining majority will
come to the area and wait two to three years for water, four to six years
for electricity, seven to eight years for a street with caliche (gravel),
and perhaps ten to fifteen years to replace outdoor toilets with a sewer
line.

How Far Does $6.50
a Day Go?

Workers endure difficult
and unhealthy living conditions to earn higher wages than they could in
the south. According to several sources, including the director of industrial
development in Reynosa, Maria Prieto, the average wage for low-level assembly
work in Reynosas maquiladoras is 70 pesos (about $6.50) per day,
or about 80 cents an hour.

Supporters of the
maquiladoras claim that workers make between $2 to $3 an hour when free
transportation, free lunch, medical insurance and other benefits are accounted
for.

With take home pay
averaging $6.50 a day, though, it is struggle for maquila workers, especially
for recent migrants who typically arrive with very little.

Rosa Nuñez
said the organization she works with, the Border Workers Committee, did
a report on basic food needs. The report found that food cost about 900
pesos ($83 a week) for a family of four in Reynosa.

I dream of having
a budget like that! Nuñez said. They pay me 400 pesos
[$37 per week] in the maquila. That is half of what I need to give my
kids a balanced diet. And from that comes the poor education of kids,
because if they have a poor diet, they cant learn well. So it is
difficult.

Despite the hardships,
advocates for maquila development say, all things considered, poor Mexicans
are better off when they come to the border.

Secretary Ramírez
said, How is this unfair? They come in, they have nothing, you know.
Somebody from Veracruz [the southern state from which most migrants come],
they came because they didnt have a job. You gotta realize that
40 million Mexicans live on $1 a day. You know by the wage rate here that
they make more than $1 a day.

Theyre
going to live better, he continued. Its not the perfect
solution, but its a solution for unemployment.

Others are less certain
that migrants live better. Though they may earn a higher wage, they find
a higher cost of living in Reynosa. And as Kruegar points out, they no
longer have crops, animals and land to sustain them. When theyre
back in Veracruz, living on the ranch, they have a reasonable, nice home,
with shade trees around; they have chickens, maybe a goat or a cow.

Whether for good or
ill, in a single bus ride from Veracruz to Reynosa, these migrants have
tumbled into the industrial revolution, with all of its promise and all
of its problems.

Sidebar: THE COST
OF LIVING IN REYNOSA

At about 80 cents
an hour, workers in Reynosas maquiladoras make much less than their
American counterparts at Galesburg Refrigeration Products, where the average
wage is $15.14. But what about the cost of living? Prices in Reynosa range
from much lower than in the United States to more expensive. Below are
some selected items and their typical prices when purchased new in a Reynosa
store using current conversion rates:

A woman growing up
in Reynosa today faces much different expectations and broader opportunities
than those of previous generationsa dramatic social change brought
on largely by the introduction of maquila factories into Reynosa.

Erika Barbosa, 37,
a maquila worker raised in Reynosa, said, we have the capability
to do things just like men do, not just stay at home taking care of kids.
With my co-workers, we have this mentality. If I get married, I get married,
but I want to develop myself, my profession.

Barbosa began working
at age 19, placing buttons on radios, a tedious job that paid about $150
a month. Largely because of her education and ability to speak some English,
she has advanced to a quality control position that pays about $730 per
month.

Edna Avila, 26, expressed
similar sentiments. Though she has encountered machismo and
struggled with low pay, she is excited about the opportunities that women
in her generation have. I want to study and work, Avila said.
[My husband] has a profession also and he understands my aspirations.
He has his and I have mine. Im not going to conform to just what
he wants to achieve.

Edna added, In
states without maquilas, women are still very repressed. The border areas
are more open to women. Both Erika and Edna said they respected
marriage and childrearing, but think it is important that women have the
freedom to choose their own path.

Though the proportion
of men working in the maquilas has been increasing in Reynosa, women still
outnumber men on the assembly lines. Factory managers in developing countries
say they prefer women because they have small fingers, better manual dexterity
and are more patient with monotonous work. Critics contend that employers
hire young, single women because they are still culturally trained to
be more submissive than men and therefore easier to control and exploit.

Employment in the
maquiladoras brings many hardships for women. There have been numerous
documented cases of sexual harassment and discriminatory and degrading
monthly pregnancy tests in the maquiladoras, though this practice has
been largely reformed.

Also, social justice
advocates maintain that because of low wages many women are forced into
leaving their children at home without a caretaker or are forced into
second jobs or even prostitution.

One maquila worker
said, [My daughter] doesnt want me to work in the maquila
because I leave her alone too long. She added that she does not
want her daughter to work in the maquila because of the low wages and
difficult working conditions. With an education and more regulation of
the maquila sector, she thinks that her daughter will have a better chance
than she did to lead a comfortable life.

Despite enduring sexism
and injustices, one vocal critic of the maquiladoras, Arturo Solis, acknowledges
many encouraging changes. Women have the opportunity to support
themselves, Solis said. She has ceased being dependent on
a man. It has allowed her to be in charge of the family and to decide
about her life, her family, her partner, and kids. And all this in the
past didnt exist because here in Mexico, women were confined to
housework and to conform to what her husband said. This has changed. Thats
very good.

September 29, 2003The Register-Mail

WHAT WILL HAPPEN
TO THE BORDER?

By Chad Broughton

On weekend nights,
the young and hip in Reynosas middle-class might drop by one of
the citys discobars. At these lavish, low-lit nightclubs, there
are waiters in tuxedoes, mirrored tables and green lasers that flutter
around the room. On a white wall adjacent to the premium bar, hip-hop
and other popular American music videos play out of a digital projector,
loud and large.

On the outskirts of
the central citywhen the workweek resumestens of thousands
of workerswith dreams of one day entering the middle classtake
buses to hundreds of massive factories. In these maquiladoras
they create an astonishing array of high-tech products that are purchased
in places like Galesburg every day. These workersmost of whom are
migrants from Mexicos interiorlive near the factories in colonias,
impoverished, makeshift neighborhoods that have sprung up in the last
couple of decades to encircle the city like shantytown suburbs.

Both scenes were unthinkable
for Reynosa twenty years ago. The once relatively small city has been
thrust into its new role as a production site for global corporations,
including Maytag. While people in Reynosa hold opposing viewpoints on
the changes that the factories have brought, many now wonderand
worryabout the future of the border.

Galesburg and Reynosa
Face a Similar Fate

Like Galesburg, Reynosa
faces stiff competition from lower-wage countries, principally China.
While an entry-level wage in Reynosa is typically $6.50 per day, excluding
benefits, that same job could be done in China for about $2 per day. In
part because of competition from China, the maquiladora industry in Mexico
has lost hundreds of thousands of assembly jobs since maquila employment
peaked in October 2000.

Reynosa is considered
a model of economic development because it has weathered the economic
recession better than any other border cityperhaps better than any
city in all of Mexico. Nevertheless, Reynosa is feeling the pressure of
global competition.

Mike Allen, who recruits
companies to Reynosa, is constantly worrying about losing jobs to China,
a country that not only features lower wages, but also subsidizes materials.
Were fighting China, Allen said. They may be singing
the communist song, but theyve been kicking our butts.

Free trade agreements,
including NAFTA, have made Reynosa a rendezvous point for American companies
seeking low-wage labor and poor migrants from Mexicos interior,
who are leaving unprofitable farms and seeking work. But as lower-wage
countries begin to attract more factories from both the U.S and Mexico,
free trade may take away from Reynosa what it has given.

Stephen Spivey, former
business editor of the McAllen Monitor, warns, As cheap as Mexico
is, China is much cheaper still. I think theres a lot of concern
that the industry is in real trouble.

While Reynosa struggles
to retain jobs against lower-wage, low-regulation countries, blue-collar
areas in the United States see work disappear month after month, often
forcing workers to face a lower standard of living, job insecurity, and
dramatic life changes.

Unfortunately,
from a manufacturing standpoint, what Galesburgs experiencing now
is what every community in the industrial areas of the United States is
going to experience in the next five to ten years.

Noting the unforgiving
nature of global capitalism, Partridge said that blue-collar workers have
to pull themselves up by their bootstraps.

If a person
thinks that theyre owed a job for $20 or $30 an hour to put something
together with screws when someone else is willing to do it for 50 cents
an hour, guess where its going to go? I mean, thats economics,
Partridge said.

In this sense, workers
in Reynosa and Galesburg face a similar fate in the global economy: they
must compete against workers willingor forced by political and economic
circumstancesto work for lower wages.

Working for Change

Despite the gloomy
outlook, there are many working for change in the United States, Mexico
and China.

Rosa Nuñez,
a worker-activist, often feels overwhelmed in her attempts to organize
workers to fight for their rights. She knocks on door after door, finding
much discontent with working and living conditions, but also a strong
reluctance to confront the unions and corporate management.

If the unions
did a good job of teaching workers their rights, then they would have
better working conditions, better salaries, better benefits and a better
quality of life. Here the unions are rich and the workers have nothing,
Nuñez said.

The unions cant
work for workers rights because the government doesnt allow them
to. The government says that if a union offers better benefits to the
workers, the companies wouldnt come here.

Nonetheless, Nuñez
says, there have been small victories in their struggle. By putting pressure
on unions to act, many illegal practices have been righted.

A 1996 Human Rights
Watch report documented illegal pregnancy tests that were performed in
Reynosa maquiladoras when women applied for work and then each month thereafteroftentimes
in a degrading manner.

Now they dont
make them take a medical exam in order to be a worker, Nuñez
said. They now hire pregnant women and pay their maternity leave
and insurance.

Supporters of the
maquila industry say that the problems of the maquiladoras are exaggerated
and not enough attention is given to the opportunities they offer the
poor.

Herber Ramirez, secretary
of economic development and employment in Reynosa, worked in the area
for almost three decadesmostly for Zenithafter attending the
University of Houston.

I saw Reynosa
grow from three to four plants when I arrived here in 1974 to the 150
that we got now, Ramirez said.

Ramirez says that
the conventional wisdom about the factories is inaccurate. Everybody
thinks that they exploit people. Those of us that have worked in maquilas,
we know that it is not true.

Referring to the downward
pull of global competition, however, Ramirez concedes, If China
hadnt opened up, wages in Mexico would be a lot better now.

It is for this reason
thatdespite some improvements achieved in living and working conditionspoor
and working-class Mexicans at the border still face many challenges and
an uncertain future. Indeed, in an ever-shifting global economy, uncertainty
has become the norm.

Advocates for global
fair trade and workers rights like Nuñez say that by improving
conditions in China, conditions in Mexico will improve. Likewise, by working
for better conditions in Mexicothough it will not save jobs lost
at Galesburg Refrigeration ProductsAmerican workers will benefit.

By holding U.S. corporations
accountable for their practices and raising working standards worldwide,
these advocates claim that economic development can benefit allrather
than simply enriching corporate coffers and local elites.

Atanasio Martinez,
who migrated thirteen years ago in search of work, still wonders whether
or not it was the right decision to leave his home in Veracruz to look
for work in the maquiladoras. Making only $290 a month in the wheelchair
factory, his family struggles from day to day.

When asked about Maytags
impending relocation, Martinez had much to say about how corporate decisions
impact the lives of workers in Reynosaand in Galesburg.

This company,
Maytag, that closes down completely; it has such a devastating effect
for those who were working there [in Galesburg], he said.

Right now,
Martinez continued, we are living in a period in which globalization
is too difficult and its really hitting us hard. We as human beings,
as workers, should do something to organize ourselves, because what rules
is money. I think that organizing ourselves, being united, as workers,
will do a lot. There must be unity. Isolated, we cant achieve anything.

Sidebar: THE ROLE
OF UNIONS IN REYNOSA

Herber Ramirez, the
secretary of economic development and employment in Reynosa, says that
companies locate in Reynosa in part, because the labor climate is
good. Since labor protests in 1983, organized labor has been relatively
peaceful, Ramirez said. Maria Prieto, the director of industrial development
for the municipality, said that unions dont want trouble
and are not a problem for companies.

Likewise, the McAllen
Economic Development Corporation, which recruits corporations to Reynosa,
writes on their website that, the labor union climate in Reynosa
is very favorable to industry.

Reynosas 70,000
maquiladora workers are represented by the Confederación de Trabajadores
de Mexico (CTM) or by in-house unions established by each company. The
vast majority is represented by the CTM, which has three leaders in Reynosa.

The CTM has been criticized
in Mexico and by U.S. unions for protecting the status quo and the interests
of corporations rather than advancing workers rights.

Armando Zertuche,
the former secretary of economic development and employment, contends
that because the CTM has long been part of the established political structure,
they do not advocate for workers. The worker doesnt feel represented
by the unions, he said. There is a corporate mentality and
many people get benefits from it, live off of it. They help the businesses;
they dont look for improvements [even though] they say they do.

While there are many
smaller, more progressive and independent unions in Mexico, they have
not made much headway in Reynosa.

Labor advocates argue
that many forces conspire against independent unions forming. Arturo Solis,
president of a human rights organization in Reynosa, said, The employee
has no right to unionize freely here. There have been attempts to unionize
freely and, right away, they are smashed; [organizers are] fired, let
go. They are put on a blacklist and cant get work in a maquila ever
again. Its very difficult to find work after that and thats
why the level of protest by workers is so low.

Ed Kruegar, a social
activist in Reynosa and neighboring Matamoras for decades, says that in
years past, almost all of the workers, if you asked them who was
it that was oppressing their lives, instead of naming the company, they
would name the union leader. Kruegar adds, however, that union leaders
have started to support workers in some ways.

Angel Rodriguez, the
secretary general of one of the three CTM unions in Reynosa, represents
about 10,000 workers, including Maytag workers. Rodriguez said, we
have just one purpose: to represent the workers in a dignified way and
with respect for human rights. His union, he said, provides assistance
with personal and family emergencies, housing problems, and workplace
conflicts with supervisors. Rodriguez added that his union is constructing
a large hall for social events for maquila workers and athletic fields
for soccer and volleyball next to the Maytag campus.

A critic of the CTM,
who asked to be anonymous, said that Rodriguezwho goes by Tito
works in the interest of the maquiladora owners, not the workers. Tito
basically does labor relations for management, the critic said.

Whether or not unions
in Reynosa work in the interests of their workers, there is no denying
that Rodriguez has a clear understanding of the situation of Reynosas
labor force in the context of global capitalism.

The Mexican
border is attractive because the cost of the workforce is cheaper here
[than in the U.S.], the union leader said. If you get a company
here, you try to protect it. How can you protect it? With a workforce
that is more accessible, not as expensive.